


Like Creatures

by cupcakekillian



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: basically a character study, yeah so two badass ladies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 09:59:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13385442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cupcakekillian/pseuds/cupcakekillian
Summary: "All she could do was watch as they tore her husband to shreds. All she could do was let him know that she was behind him, whatever came his way. All she could do was let him know that she believed in him; then, now, and always.So maybe it was the thought of Barry, her strong, noble, far too-good husband, that kept her from losing it. If he could hold it together, she would too. He needed that.She still surprised herself when she said, 'I respected you.'"





	Like Creatures

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr Prompt: yoooo! in preparation for trial of the flash and because of kim and candice's twitter interaction, can i get some Marlize and Iris interaction? like not hateful but rather insightful??

She expected that her first reaction would be to strangle her. 

 

Maybe stab her with a kitchen knife?

 

At the very least, she figured the only words coming out of her mouth would be expletives, and she’d have to be dragged away in a blaze of fury.

 

So when she finds herself alone in the courthouse women’s bathroom with Marlize DeVoe, Iris West-Allen is surprised she does none of that. 

 

Instead, the two women stare at one another. 

 

Iris suspects that Marlize is waiting for a blow-up, but quite frankly she was just too tired. The police, her father’s co-workers, had just dragged Barry back to jail while deliberation continued. This trial was proving to be a war she’d been unprepared for. The way that they were dragging Barry through the muck, implying that maybe murder was in his genes, that it’d only been a matter of time before he snapped, that he could hurt anyone, that he was anything but a hero, was breaking her down faster than when Savitar was going to kill her. 

 

She suspected that was because those circumstances had been a threat to her. That was something she was used to. That was something she could deal with. Something she could at least pretend to let roll off her shoulders. 

 

She’d always been a bit more sensitive when it came to Barry. 

  
Ever since they were little she’d taken on the role of protector. When Tony Woodward came around, Iris was there. When nightmares plagued him, she would hold him. Even after lightning had struck, Iris remained steadfast. It was his job to protect everyone, it was hers to protect him. 

 

She couldn’t do that now. 

 

All she could do was watch as they tore her husband to shreds. All she could do was let him know that she was behind him, whatever came his way. All she could do was let him know that she believed in him; then, now, and always. 

 

So maybe it was the thought of Barry, her strong, noble, far too-good husband, that kept her from losing it. If he could hold it together, she would too. He needed that. 

 

She still surprised herself when she said, “I respected you.” 

 

Evidently she surprised Marlize too, because the woman barely managed to choke out an “Excuse me?” 

 

Iris had literally no idea where she was going, but let the words flow anyway. “I respected you. I hated you for what you were doing, I hated you for destroying my life, I still hate you for what you’re doing to my husband. But nevertheless, I respected you.” 

 

Marlize stared at her, face perfectly neutral but eyes showing her confusion. Iris found that her next words flowed easily. “It is hard to be in love with a great man. It is hard to be in love with a man with power, and fortitude, and strength, and brilliance. It’s hard to be in love with a man who could make the world kneel at his feet. I know this because I am in love with a great man, and you are too. I know how hard it is to look at all that greatness and tell him he is wrong.” 

 

She paused then, sizing up the woman in front of her. They were similar in many ways, Iris could not deny that, but there was a fundamental difference between them and that was what pushed her forward. 

 

“To see all that power, that potential, and not cower in the face of it. To be a sounding board, a conscience, a compass, and not let the weight of that responsibility crush you. It takes a strong woman to stand beside a powerful man, and not behind him.” All that anger, all that sadness that Iris had been experiencing over the past few weeks seemed to evaporate momentarily. She was steady as she stepped closer to Marlize. “To feel comfortable in her own power, and fortitude, and strength, and brilliance. To be a force equal to that of her husband’s; the thunder to the lightning. I hated you, but I respected you because I thought you and I were the same; great women in love with great men.”

 

Marlize stepped back, away from her, and Iris smiled. 

 

“But I am strong, and you are weak.” She could not help the vitriol leaking into her voice as she continued. “You let him become this. You became an echo of his own words, you became a puppet. You were content to stand in his shadow and repeat everything back to him like a demented little parrot. You know this is wrong, but you can’t seem to locate your own backbone long enough to tell your _husband_ that.”

 

And Iris saw then that in every way she mirrored Marlize, she was also an opposite. Their situations were nothing alike, because Iris had never had reason to fear Barry. She never had any reason to believe that he would not heed her advice whether she was right or wrong. 

 

“You’re afraid.”

 

Not only was she not afraid to challenge her husband, but she wouldn’t dare dream of not doing it whenever the occasion arose. Barry didn’t always listen to her, but that didn’t mean she didn’t give her opinion. She would never be the type to follow blindly. 

 

“You’re weak”

 

And as she looked at this woman, smart in ways Iris could only dream of being, she could see that she was right. Marlize was loyal in the same way Iris was, but at some point things had taken a turn she hadn’t expected, and she’d let them. She may not have started off as a glorified servant, but she was now, and her husband was the one who’d put her in that position.

  
So it was not a lie when Iris said, “And I feel nothing but pity for you.” 

 

Marlize looked appropriately affronted, and maybe a bit terrified, at Iris’ words, but she seemed to remember herself and her face hardened. In what was clearly a thinly attempted veil to deflect, she spat out “Your husband is about to go to jail for the rest of his life. You’ll never see him again. So, if I were you, I’d save all that pity for yourself. You’re going to need it.”

 

It was not a denial of what Iris had just said, and clearly she still possessed enough dignity not to lie to herself. 

 

Dignity… 

 

It was a tricky business, particularly as far as loved ones were concerned. Iris knew that perhaps better than anyone. She’d always been far too self-sacrificing, far too forgiving. Still, she’d always been a proud person with a strong sense of morality and right and wrong. Very few things could threaten that, very few people could threaten that. 

  
With the one glaring exception, of course. 

 

There was not much she wouldn’t do for Barry. She’d killed for him, even when she wouldn’t do it to save her own life. She would lie and steal and cheat for him without giving it too much thought. She’d protect him at any and all cost to herself. 

 

The thing was, he wouldn’t let her. 

 

“I was going to plant evidence. My dad and I, we were going to plant evidence, which you probably already knew was a possibility.” Marilze’s smug smile told Iris she was right about that. She’d quickly discovered that The Thinker and his wife calculated all outcomes. Still, she ventured to guess they knew little about the reasons behind those outcomes. “But do you know why we didn’t go through with it? Barry.” Iris smiled as she remembered. “He got wind of it, told us not to, told us under no circumstance that we could. I didn’t understand it, because he could be free. His lawyer told him that if he confessed that he was The Flash, he could probably walk. He told me that if he did that, we could never stop running. _We_ could never stop running.” 

 

That was the thing about the two of them, ever since they were little, they’d been a “we”. They were a team, a joint entity. He put her first.

 

But Marlize already knew that, given what she’d seen over the past few months. She knew that Barry would always think of Iris before anyone else, even himself. 

 

She needed to know that the reverse was true as well. 

 

“I almost died last year. We knew it was coming, and Barry was ready to do anything to stop it from happening. He was ready to do unspeakable, horrible things and I was so terrified that I almost let him a couple of times.” She didn’t like to think back to that time, such a dark spot in their lives. She’d always been good at burying her own emotions in order to serve others, but she really had been scared beyond belief, as much as she denied it. Even that fear, that instinctual desire to save herself, was not enough to ask Barry to stop being the man he was. To stop being the hero. “But I realized that not even my life was worth him losing who he is, the same way he realizes his freedom isn’t worth me losing who I am.” 

 

There was a pause, and this time Iris chose her words carefully, because what she said next was the most important. “When you love someone, when you really truly love all of them, you would die before you asked them to give up who they are. Barry would rot in prison for the rest of his days, before he asked me to sacrifice my morals, or my values, or my opinions. He would die before he ever made me do something I didn’t want to, and I would do the same for him. That’s what you do when you love someone; you protect them, you protect who they are, at any cost.” 

 

Iris paused, and there was no malice in her voice or hatred in her heart as she continued. “No matter how this trial ends, no matter what happens, Barry will still be the man I love and the man who loves me. That will never change. I hope at the end of all this you can say the same.” 

 

She left the bathroom without another word, leaving Marlize to her own thoughts. She realised as she walked away that it was true, that she didn’t want Marlize to lose her love or herself. She knew she should only wish ill on that woman and her husband, but she wouldn’t want that for anyone. 

 

Like she’d said, she was always much too self-sacrificing, much too optimistic, much too forgiving. 

 

But that was who she was. 

 

So she hoisted her bag a little higher, walked a little taller, and let herself be free of her anger for just a moment. 

 

It’s what Barry would want. 


End file.
